Manufacturer: Toyota  Total sales: 2013 8,871,000  Headquarters: Aichi Prefecture, Japan Global market share: 11%

Hybrid success story

Since the launch of its first-generation Prius 17 years ago, Toyota has sold a total 3.2 million units of the vehicle globally. The brand has now extended its hybrid range to a total of 25 vehicles, including the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, which, as of June 2014, became the world’s third best selling plug-in electric car behind the LEAF and Volt/Ampera family.

As of September 2014, a total of 65,310 Prius Plug-in Hybrids (PHEV) have been sold worldwide, with the United States as the market leader with 36,680 vehicles delivered, followed by Japan with 19,100, and Europe with 9,133. The hybrid-friendly Netherlands is the leading European market with 3,978 vehicles registered to September 2014, followed by the UK with 1,089 units registered as of March 2014.

Corolla, the juggernaut of the C-segment, surpassed 40 million global sales in September 2013, and continues to be a cornerstone of Toyota’s sales success. A truly global car, the Corolla shares a platform with the Auris compact hatchback, positioned to replace the Corolla in Europe.

The Auris helped propel Toyota to an 8.6 % year-on-year increase in European sales in the first half of 2014, with Toyota sales for the period rising to 427,216 vehicles. The hatchback and Touring Sports wagon amassed 73,718 sales – 18.4% more than in the same period last year. Within that figure, hybrid proved by far the most popular powertrain option, notably for Touring Sports, with best-ever monthly figures of 18,379 units in June – accounting for one in four of all Auris sales.

Taking all hybrid Toyota models in to account – Auris, Yaris, Prius and Camry versions – the first six months saw a 17% rise in sales. Yaris Hybrid similarly posted a 17% increase in sales volume, maintaining its position as the only hybrid in the supermini segment. Its performance is set to be strengthened following the launch of the 2014 Yaris in August, with CO2 emissions brought down to 75g/km.

Toyota retained a strong position in the USA on the back of soaring demand for SUV and crossover models, with the RAV4 and Highlander SUV recording growth of 43% and 22% respectively in the month of September. The Camry sedan totalled 222,540 sales in the first half of the year, helping it retain its place as the top-selling car in the USA.

The Japanese government raised consumption tax to 8% from 5% in March as part of a strategy to counter the national debt burden. Vehicle sales in the region have slowed as a result of the hike, with all manufacturers experiencing a downturn. Before the increase, Toyota was on track for a record-breaking year in its home market, recording 23,973 sales of the Prius c, or Aqua, in February alone.

Operating through joint ventures with China FAW Group and Guangzhou Automobile Group, however, Toyota recorded a 13% sales uplift for the first 10 months of the year in China. This was thanks largely to the soaring popularity of the Corolla, which accounted for 21,480 sales in October. Toyota expects to register over 1m vehicles in the region by the end of 2014.

Fuel Cell technology…

Toyota’s New Global Architecture (TNGA) will underpin every new car from the next-generation Prius onwards, delivering an estimated 30% saving on the cost and duration of vehicle development. Toyota is hopeful that the new program will also help to reduce the increasing number of safety recalls plaguing the brand, as well as making production cheaper due to common parts, trimmings and components being made available on a global scale.

Toyota’s ever-expanding range and the impact that has had on the variety of parts involved has been a driving force behind the program – the company currently has more than 50 different designs of airbag to suit different driver seating positions, for example. Using TNGA, the number of airbag designs will fall to 10.

The new shared common-platform strategy is similar to that used by Volkswagen, Renault’s Dacia brand and Volvo. TNGA will be based on a ‘common hip point driver seating position’ that can be used to standardise body pressings around the bulkheads and footwells of similar models. Toyota will therefore be able to use those common pressings over multiple cars in the same segment, such as the Corolla, Prius and Auris.

The next Camry will be the first vehicle to get Toyota's full TNGA treatment, complete with a new platform and an engine built on a TNGA-tailored line.

Toyota’s engineers have also designed a new hybrid synergy powertrain for the next-generation Prius, due in 2015. Fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions from the Euro 6 engine are a claimed 90mpg and 70g/km.

'The electric motors in the new Prius will be smaller and more efficient, and the petrol engine is expected to have a thermal efficiency of over 40%, a world’s best,' reveals Neil Broad, UK general manager of fleet and remarketing.

The Fuel Cell Sedan – Mirai – will go on sale before April 2015 in Japan, and summer 2015 for Europe and North America. Toyota claims performance and a cruising range similar to that of a petrol-engined vehicle, with refuelling taking roughly three minutes. The car's only tailpipe emission is water vapour, produced by the chemical reaction between the hydrogen and oxygen.

'Unlike other models, the Toyota Fuel Cell is not a prototype or modified vehicle but has been designed as a full production Fuel Cell Vehicle and will lay the foundations for mass deployment,' Mr Broad explains. 'We believe that alongside hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles can play an important role in delivering more sustainable mobility.' 

Toyota is working towards increased globalisation of its model range, with shared architecture due to arrive in the near future. In the meantime, the company has a diverse model range to suit world tastes, with only a handful of global models.

View from the top

Neil Broad, UK general manager of fleet and remarketing, explains why diesel hybrids are unlikely to be seen in Europe.

Which are your most important fleet models in Europe?

The British-built Avensis and Auris together with the French-built Yaris are our top performing models. The growth in small car fleet sales has been steady, but the biggest shift has been towards the new Auris which has also seen strong growth in the estate version and has been made available with hybrid as well as petrol and diesel versions.

Does Toyota see a continued role for diesel engines in Europe?

Diesel technology will continue to have a future in the powertrain map in Europe but we already see a significant shift away from diesels in smaller vehicles and this trend is likely to continue as petrol and other technology develops.

Hybrid is our core technology for the future as it allows us improved efficiency and supports the diversification of fuels. This is possible because our full hybrid systems are flexible and modular so can be applied to any power source, as they will be with hydrogen and they could be with diesel.

However, although we have sold a diesel hybrid truck in Japan for many years, there are a number of reasons why we do not have a diesel hybrid vehicle in Europe yet.

Technical issues mean that with diesel vibrations are much stronger during stopping and starting than for a petrol engine, which is not acceptable for a passenger car. Diesel engines also cannot achieve the same emissions as petrol engines, even with the costly Euro 6 technology. There are cost concerns because a diesel engine is more expensive than a petrol engine and with the increased cost of diesel emission control systems, diesel hybrid is not currently cost effective.